Celebrating Art and Life, the Della Way

The last Saturday in July has traditionally been called changeover weekend, the time in the summer when the July people leave and the August people arrive on the Island.

But for the last five years the last Saturday in July is also something else. In 2005, the Oak Bluffs selectmen declared this day Della Hardman Day in their town, in honor and in memory of the late Della Brown Hardman who died in December 2005 at the age of 83. An artist, educator, mother and writer who wrote the Oak Bluffs column for the Vineyard Gazette for many years, Della was one of those rare people who brought out the best in everyone she met.

Tomorrow is Della Hardman Day in Oak Bluffs, a day that has grown to become a weekend-long celebration of the arts with music, art, a speaking event and essay contest for young writers. The weekend begins tonight at 7 p.m. with a sunset concert at the East Chop Light by the Jim Thomas Spirituals Shoir. Tomorrow the main event will feature the celebrated poet and playwright Sonia Sanchez at 5 p.m. in Ocean Park. At that time the winners of the annual Della Hardman high school essay contest will also be announced (the top three essays are published on the Commentary Page in today’s edition). And this year a retrospective exhibit of Della’s photography will be shown at the Oak Bluffs Library.

“The idea for the exhibit is to highlight Della’s interest in photography as art, documentation and portraiture,” her daughter, Andrea Taylor, wrote in an e-mail to the Gazette this week. “She almost always carried a camera wherever she went, usually a 35 mm SLR.”

The Howard Gotlieb Archival Research Center at Boston University houses the Della Hardman Collection of personal papers, photographs and other materials.

Ms. Taylor wrote: “If Della was alive today, she would no doubt be an avid Facebook user who would document and share her visual perspective with her many friends and family networks on Martha’s Vineyard and around the world.”

There is a Facebook page for Della Hardman Day 2011. Times for all events appear in the listings section in today’s Gazette.